Wedding
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Wii and weddings, so happy together
We've all seen plenty of different kinds of cakes shaped as a Wii or its accessories, so this is nothing new to you or us. But, this whole Wii wedding craze is. Frankly, it's something we welcome with a big smile on our face, because nothing brightens our day more than Wii and love. Actually, to us, the Wii is love. Love in console form.[Via Geek Alerts]
Wii tops Amazon wedding gift registry
When my wife and I tied the knot, the most interesting things we received were an embroidered pillow and a Waterford crystal bowl, the former of which now languishes in a moving box while the latter was, interestingly enough, recently shattered during a particularly feverish bout of Wii Sports boxing (sorry mom!). There is symmetry here, however, that does not go unnoticed, as Amazon currently lists the Wii as the top gift requested by newlyweds registered on the site. Unfortunately, Amazon also notes that the popular console is currently 'out of stock,' leaving couples to instead settle for the second most requested gift, Pyrex's 10-piece food storage set, a poor substitute given its inherent lack of waggle. Wii accessories, including the remote, nunchuck, and Nyko charging station, were also included in the compilation of popular wedding gifts, though without a system to use them on these sorts of presents just smack of being cruel. Interestingly, both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were also found in the list as well, both products of what we can only assume to be wishful thinking or misaligned priorities -- perhaps a bit of both. [via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
Wii wins the Amazon Wedding registry war
As a newlywed myself -- I traded power rings with my wife just last week -- I'm kicking myself over having not set up one of these Amazon wedding registries, filling our wish list to the topmost edges of the brim with niche games and controller geegaws. I could be playing Bust-A-Move Bash! right now, were it not for my shortsightedness.Other couples with similar misplaced priorities, however, made sure to include Nintendo's much-hyped console on their lists, as Amazon charted the Wii as the number one most-registered-for item by engaged pairs. Pyrex's 10-piece tupperware set, long-criticized for its flimsy implementation of motion controls and lack of AAA titles, was a distant second.Sony's 60GB Playstation 3 came in at a respectful 44th place, while the 20GB Xbox 360 managed to sneak in as the 96th most-registered-for product. As for Wii accessories, the remote (15), nunchuk (26), and Nyko's charging station (76) all made an appearance on the top 100 list. OXO's locking tongs -- which aren't technically a remote peripheral, but could be used as one anyway -- sit at the 35 marker.[Via Digg]
Zelda Week: Possibly the best gaming cake ever
Okay, that's it. We're done. From now on, gamer weddings just don't matter. They're empty, soulless shells next to this. Sure, Tetris cakes are awesome, and Zelda ice sculptures are cool as, well, ice, but this one takes the cake -- literally. This Wind Waker-inspired wedding cake is a work of art. We're pretty sure we wouldn't even be able to cut it, much less eat it ... in fact, we would need to create some sort of force field technology to preserve this thing until the end times. Bounce on over to Kotaku if you want to see the top in detail, and weep that you do not have such an item preserved on a high shelf in your home.Unless you do. In which case, we want it.
(Some guy at) Blizzard loves Nintendo
You might think if a level designer at Blizzard opts for a gamer wedding, the main decorative theme might be something like Night Elves and Gnomes, but that's not how Cory Stockton rolls. No, he and his new wife Christi went for something a little more classic: Nintendo.Clearly, we approve of this decision. Also, of the completely outrageous and awesome ice sculpture, which looks just about perfect for Zelda week. Maybe we could get one of those for the DS Fanboy offices ....The cake, of course, featured Nintendo themes, with Mario and Peach perched on the top tier, and all of the tables were named after consoles. But the best part? Even the wedding's music was lifted from classic Nintendo games. Now we're officially jealous.Check out the full gallery at Joystiq to see what a real gamer wedding looks like. We must say: it's epic.
Euri's multimedia ring box -- for nerds who want wives
We'd highly recommend spending a bit more time (and money) on the actual ring rather than the box it comes in, but for those looking to wow your tech-savvy fiancée even more when popping the question, take a look at Euri's multimedia ring box. This ring holder sports a two-inch LCD internally, along with a clock, calender and alarm, and is available in a number of hues. There's even an unspecified amount of internal storage included, and you can upload your favorite pre-engagement photos via USB and have them displayed on the big day. Granted, this snazzy box is $198.95, but you only get one shot (well, usually) to get a "yes."[Via EverythingUSB]
Blizzard designer's gamer wedding
How to incorporate gaming into your wedding and still keep it tasteful? It's a question many young men and women are dealing with nowadays. So, until we get The Tasteful Gamer's Wedding by Martha Stewart, we're just going to have to keep figuring it out on our own. This is how Cory Stockton, lead level designer at Blizzard, worked gaming into his wedding: Super Mario Bros. wedding cake. (So. Cal. designer Erica O'Brien) Legend of Zelda ice sculpture/vodka luge (So. Cal. Union Ice). The sculpture doubled as a vodka luge for martinis and shots at the wedding. If you look close at the images in the gallery you can see the channel flowing diagonal down the center of the sword/shield for the alcohol. Tables were all named after video game consoles. The head table was called "Press Start to Begin." There were 23 tables from the NES and NeoGeo, to the Xbox 360. The grand entrance music was The Legend of Zelda's overworld theme and the wedding party's music was the Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 theme. His wife Christi was "100% ok" with those elements, but Stockton says it's mostly because it was his only real involvement with the wedding. He says the guests were happy with the elements as well and they received tons of compliments on the cake and sculpture. For the tables named after consoles Stockton says, "I actually tried to sit people at table names that matched up too. For instance we had the grandparents at the NES table and all the kids at the Wii table. I will say, the Virtual Boy table was not all that popular." More images can be found in the gallery below. Congrats to the couple.%Gallery-8135%
Today's Fan Fairiest video: EverQuest players tie real and virtual knots
Sony Online Entertainment's recent Fan Faire was held in Las Vegas, which is already known for quirky characters and quickie weddings. However, this was probably the only time the city over hosted both a real wedding, and a virtual one, at the same time. Er, and for the same people. We don't want to slight the Vegas virtual wedding scene, if it exists.Two gamers, who met in EverQuest, tied the knot during the event at the Rio Hotel ... and then promptly went on a six-hour hack and slash raid through an orc-infested dungeon as a honeymoon treat. Okay, we keed, we keed ... but listen to the preacher during the ceremony as he says "we're gathered here today at the beautiful Rio Hotel." Wonder if he's a paid shill.Anyhow, check out the wedding video above (Darth Vader and some Stormtroopers actually lead the bridal procession in), and some costume contest photos in the gallery below. One of these days BlizzCon and Fan Faire need to meet so the MMORPGer's can battle it out for global online domination.%Gallery-5908%
Getting married in a virtual realm
WorldofWar points us to this forum thread by Fabraz, in which he shows off a video of his WoW wedding. The video is all in German, but you can tell what's happening as two Night Elf druids stand together in Darnassus as onlookers kneel. They finish their vows, and then a party goes down, and gifts are even given.It's not the first time this sort of thing has been done, of course (that's another German vid, though-- are Germans more likely to do a virtual wedding?), but it is a strange little collision of our social gestures in the real world with the virtual one. Does it mean any less or more (in terms of social meaning-- of course it doesn't mean anything legally) when two people commit to each other in virtual space rather than physical space? We've seen funerals held for players before, and of course there's the famous Serenity Now incident, with my favorite music cues of any WoW video ever. It's interesting that it's these two rituals, perhaps our most important and symbolic, that have made it into Azeroth. I've never seen a virtual graduation, perhaps congratulating the recent class of 70s, but maybe that's the next big ritual to make the jump.As a player, it's not really my thing (I find social interactions like weddings and funerals much more meaningful in the real world, and would rather leave the virtual world for things like fighting dragons and melting faces), but there is obviously a draw for this kind of thing-- in almost every MMORPG, it pops up at one point or another. Do meaningful social rituals like this belong in the World of Warcraft, or are they just a waste of time?
Augmented reality relationship game plays with your emotions
If you couldn't quite make it to the last Wii marriage counseling session, there's still good news coming from Georgia Tech. Thanks to a group of engineering minds at the university, a new augmented reality game (dubbed AR Facade) is placing you in the center of a marital spat with nearly limitless options. The program apparently runs on a back-worn laptop and utilizes an oh-so-tacky head mountable display, and developers suggest that being placed in the midst of an "interactive drama" allows you to choose sides, attempt to mediate, and basically "define your own way to win" as you try to talk some sense into the flustered couple. Interestingly, there's even talk of bringing such games "onto mobile phones" and into the workplace, but it looks like they've got a bit of hardware trimming to do first.[Via The Raw Feed]
Robot to be master of ceremonies at South Korean wedding
Getting a robot to host a wedding, an event that many see as the ultimate demonstration of humanity, may seem a little weird to some, but to Seok Gyeong-Jae, one of the designers of Tiro the robot, it's perfectly natural. Gyeong-Jae is soon to be married in Daejeon (around 80 miles from Seoul), with Tiro taking the role of master of ceremonies. In order to completely, 100% remove any possibility that Tiro will come off as harsh or inhuman, he will simulate a female voice as he attempts to move proceedings along -- as the logic goes, if it works for in-car GPS, why not for weddings? There's no mention of how the bride feels about all this, so we're assuming one of the robot's alternate tasks is to keep her happy by acting as a personal servant until the big day: let's just hope that she doesn't mind if her "wedding in white" is realized via blinking LEDs.[Thanks, HyperPC]
Nintendo files for "invitation system" patent [update 1]
[Update 1: Slightly altered the headline.]According to U.S. Patent No. 20070123353 (are there really that many patents? No. 1 must be for "fire"), Nintendo is contemplating an "invitation system for [online videogames]." A fairly standard feature of Xbox Live, this would enable Wii users to be automatically notified of any friends logged into Nintendo servers, and enable the ability to invite said player to join them in whatever wonderful fantasy land in which they currently reside.This technically may not even be for the Wii, but with rewritable firmware and a crapton of yen to replace their entire online infrastructure, hey, you never know. If you have ridiculous superstitious tendencies, please feel free to perform them ... now.
TiVo takes the cake at San Francisco wedding
Although we can't be certain if Andy and Tina Szeto attended a Wii marriage counseling session before tying the knot, the television crazed couple did invite a healthy helping of TiVo to join in their matrimonial celebration. Granted, they did stop short of rocking interactive wedding attire, but the two lovebirds did indeed have a pair of his and her TiVo cakes proudly perched beside the more traditional rendition, and to show its appreciation, TiVo actually donated a plethora of smiling plush dolls as party favors. Not to be sold short, the company also gave each member in attendance their own felt TiVo ears for maximum geekness all around, and created quite the marketing scene in the process. Hey, we've definitely seen worse cakes at a shindig before, so click on through for more pictures of the obsessive ceremony.
A not so fairytale wedding
Subscribers to Nintendo's mailing list received a classy invitation to Bowser and Peach's wedding early this morning. Posing for a photo to promote Super Paper Mario's release, the groom looks none too happy about the event. If the crossed arms and eye-contact avoidance aren't indication enough of his displeasure, then the literal and metaphorical distance between the couple gives it away.Years from now, the Koopa King will look back on his glory days of battling plumbers and racing karts, regretting that he ever gave into the princess' pressures, trapping himself in this loveless marriage. He'll sigh and wonder how old age crept up on him. After finishing his cigarette on the driveway -- Peach hates it when he smokes inside -- he'll saunter back into the house that's never felt like home, pushing the memories of what once was out of his mind.Head past the post break for the full invitation.
British bloke marries woman after randomly texting her
We've heard of quite a few oddities taking place across the lake, but this one has to be considered amongst the most outlandish of all. Apparently, a British fellow who couldn't get a random phone number out of his head following a presumably potent dream decided to text the number and inquire if he had met the person the night prior. As these things always do, one thing led to another, and eventually the two ended up meeting, and as fate would have it, they fell head over heels in love. Aside from the sap, the couple actually went so far as to get married and flee to Goa for their honeymoon after "a long courtship." Let us be the first to say "congrats" to Mr. Brown, but you should be aware that the DVR is no longer under your control, and choosing your iPod over the lady could evidently lead to some seriously dirty looks.[Via Fark]
Miis invade weddings
Sure, everybody loves Miis, but would you let your sister marry one?* Over at Mike Nelson's 1UP blog, there's a short piece on the best use of Mii sculptures yet -- as wedding cake toppers! Even if you think that Miis are getting a little too much exposure these days (they really are everywhere), it's hard to resist the idea of Mii wedding cake toppers. For a Nintendo-loving couple, we can't think of a better choice, and if you want an irreverent likeness on your wedding cake, there's no comparison. *It occurs to us that this old joke is really starting to show its age ... not only because of the prejudicial undertones, but really, modern brothers get no say in who their sisters marry, amirite? This "let" business needs to go!
Real life wedding rings get Soulbound
A member of the WoW Ladies livejournal group, Tsuraibara, and her husband figured out a completely awesome way for them to customize their wedding rings. Since they "met on an online game, the engraving was free, [and] 'soulbound' sounds nice even if you aren't familiar with WoW," they actually went out and got "Soulbound" carved on the inside of each of the rings. That's great!I liked the plush Shammy a lot, but I think this might be my new favorite real life WoW item. Of course, this does mean that they won't be able to put these on the AH anymore. But if for some reason an upgrade drops (maybe on a wedding anniversary), a vendor could probably offer them a few gold at least.
CuteCircuit's "Kiss Me!" interactive wedding attire
The creative minds over at CuteCircuit have developed yet another wearable, but this interactive wedding attire gives the bride and groom a little something extra to look forward to. The "Kiss Me!" gown and suit was fabricated specifically for a Swedish couple from Indian silks of various colors, and wired up with "smart textile" technology (as seen in the Secret Message Glove) that transmits pre-written messages when the articles make contact. Although the scene was far from traditional, it mattered not to the Swedish lovebirds, and when the couple kissed after their endearing professions, the textiles sent secret messages to each of them that could only be discovered on the tiny displays hidden in not-so-public locations. To maintain whatever amount of practicality these threads should have after the ceremony, the bride's train is removable for converting into a skirt, and the groom's jacket becomes a somewhat threatening ninja outfit. The "Kiss Me!" attire may not fit into everyone's ideal wedding, but we'll admit this is definitely more acceptable than having Kip Dynamite belt out "I love technology" to celebrate a union.
